[MJRevell]

I'm having problems with my DVD Writer on my laptop. It has worked in the past, but I haven't tried it for a long time... now when I try to use it, it simply wont work.

The Drive itself is called a DVD-RAM Drive (D:), but when I insert a writeable DVD, it turns to a CD Drive (D:) and when I hover the moust over the icon in My Computer, it says there are 0 bytes of free space.

When I try and write something onto the DVD, there is always a problem doing so, and it wont let me continue.

Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Samm]

Hi there

Can you me :

1. Does your DVD writer still read normal DVD discs (i.e non-blank ones)

2. If not, can it read normal CDs?

3. Are you still able able to burn CDs in the DVD drive?

4. Can you tell me what make/model of laptop you have please?

5. Is the DVD drive an external or internal drive?

6. What software are you using to burn DVDs with?

[MJRevell]

It still reads normal DVD's and CD's

I'm afraid I don't have any CD's to test out CD Burning with... but last time I checked, it worked.

The Laptop is a Toshiba Intel ® Celeron ® M Processor 1.60GHz

The Drive is internal

And it's the same across all the software I have... whether it's Alcohol, Sonic.. or If i simply drag the files into the Drive... none seem to work.

Thanks for replying so quickly.

[MJRevell]

Also, when I click on My Computer, the drives that come up are as follows:

DVD RAM Drive (D:) DVD Drive (E:) CD Drive (F:)

But when I insert the DVD, it seems to change the DVD RAM Drive to a CD Drive...

[Samm]

OK, try this (found it on Toshiba's website) :

Open My Computer
Right click on the DVD-RAM drive
Select 'Properties' from the pop up menu
Select the 'Recording' tab
There should be a checkbox called 'Enable CD recording on this drive'. If it is currently ticked (enabled), then untick it.

Basically, Toshiba are saying you have to manually switch between the 2 recording modes (i.e CD & DVD) by following the method described above.

Let me know how you get on

[MJRevell]

It was checked, so I unchecked it.

Now, when I insert a DVD, it still changes to a CD Drive, but it won't allow me to drag anything in there.

[Samm]

The reason for disabling that setting is because DVD-RAM uses a different file format to other types of disc & this tends to confuse XP because it assumes the disc will use CDFS file format when in fact, it doesn't.

Can you confirm the following for me please....

1. Does the drive itself definately support DVD-RAM discs?
2. Are the discs you're using definately DVD-RAM (and not DVD-RW for example)?
3. Have you formatted the discs first? If so, try formatting again now that the 'Allow CD Recording' setting has been disabled.

BTW Please don't think I'm being patronising when I ask these questions, it just makes sense to check the basic stuff first!

[MJRevell]

No worries

In fact, one of those basics could well be where I'm going wrong. The discs I had been trying were DVD RW - if you don't mind me asking, what's the difference between that and a DVD RAM? Can you write files onto a DVD RAM?

I will try formatting the DVD now.

Thanks again for the help.

[Samm]

DVD RW are simply re-writeable DVDRs. They support up to 1000 re-writes & hold 4.7GB of data.

DVD RAM discs are more expensive & less compatible. They are available in single (4.7GB) or double (9.4GB) sided formats. They support up to 100,000 re-writes & can be used like a hard drive, for dragging & dropping data.

[MJRevell]

Unfortunately, with the Write CD box unchecked, it doesn't even allow me to click on the Drive anymore. It simply comes up with a message saying it's not accessible.

[Samm]

That's ok.
Re-tick the box then use something like Alcohol or Sonic to format the DVDRW disc if you can